Off topic, but it has to so with science....
When I was young, my father had a container of some sort of powder, which was supposed to be added to water, and then it formed a gas that burned as a sort of flashlight, used during World War 2.
That had me fascinated, and my father told me not to touch it. Of course that just made me want to play with it even more. I remember putting about a teaspoon of it into a pill bottle, taking it out into the woods and dumping it into a small puddle of water, expecting a huge explosion as I ran away from it. Absolutely NOTHING happened...... (very disappointing).
For some reason, I recalled this not long ago, and I'd like to read up on the stuff on Wikipedia or something. But I can not remember the name of it. The word "carbide" comes to mind, but that is not it, thats what they use on saw blades.
Does anyone know the name of this stuff?